Two Indian ivory bureaux engraved with black floral and foliate designs, surmounted by a cresting of two dragons. Single doors flanking four drawers above drop desk front with drawer beneath. One fitted with bracket feet, the other with claw feet. Inside fitted with drawers. Brass hinges and locks. The bureaux are part of a group of furniture consisting fourteen chairs, two settees, two small cabinets and two desk arm-chairs which was made in India circa 1770 for Alexander Wynch, then Governor of Port St George. Upon his death the group of furniture including these two bureaux was put on sale and was acquired by George III for his consort Queen Charlotte. This purchase is recorded in Whitley's 'Artists adn Their Friends in England, 1700-99, Vol.i, p.364, where it is recorded under the heading, 'An incident recorded in the newspapers in the autumn of 1781': 'On Monday his Majesty [George III] passed by West-thorpe House, near Marlow, the seat of the late Governor Winch [sic]. He sent one of his Equerries to enquire whose goods were selling by auction; when Mr Christie requested his most dutiful respects might be presented to his Majesty for he wished to show him some very curious ivory chairs and a couch that were to be disposed of. His Majesty turned back, they were shown to him on the lawn opposite the house, and he liked them so well that he ordered them to be purchased for the Queen... The chairs cost fourteen and a half guineas each, the couch forty-eight guineas, and two small cabinets forty-five guineas.' This type of furniture was made in some quantity in Vizagapatam, on the eastern coast of India. The shapes were probably copied from English-made furniture of the period.